http://angbiondo.com "Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly. " - Cicero (106-43BC) Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:29:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en By: Ang Biondo © May, 2010 angbiondo.com Summer’s here and we’re on the go again. For some of us we just can’t live without the internet. It seems to have become an interregnal part of our lives and in many cases our livelihood. So if we decide to take some time to ourselves to enjoy some summer fun, we need to be near civilization where we can keep our finger on the pulse of things. Most everybody with a cell phone today has internet capability should they choose to use it. However, for those of us who work with computers and require access to the net to earn a living, the capability to do so wasn’t always available. Good news, that’s no longer a problem. Many phone companies now offer mobile broadband. Not long ago this option was cost prohibitive to low profile users such as bloggers, like myself, or company employees, home business, and those who would just like to be able to surf the net and get their e-mail while on the road. Warning!It is highly dangerous to text while driving and be it pecking away on a cell phone or typing on a computer keyboard it is texting. As a matter of fact multi-tasking of any kind while driving can prove to be fatal. Many States have adopted laws forbidding texting or talking on cell phones while driving – computing while driving is even more dangerous. Use common sense, if you need to text, talk, or compute, - PULL OVER!! For those who are tied contractually to customer support contracts, and have committed to be available for a set number of hours per day or week, the USB modem like the ‘Broadband2go USB modem pictured to the left in the Virgin Mobile™ ad, will provide mobile broadband making it possible for them to fulfill their obligations while lounging on the beach catching a cool breeze on a hot sunny day. For the serious minded, notebook and Netbook computers are also available with mobile ‘wif’i modems built in, you need only purchase a contract and/or card, activate and you’re all set. Some companies like Virgin Mobile’s™ ‘broadband2go”™ don’t require a contract, you need only by the 3G modem, and a connect card. Be forewarned, this service is still in its infancy and depending on your budget or need is somewhat spotty for some companies who lack service in remote areas. It is important that you know and realize your needs since some require a contract and the cost of initializing the USB mobile modem can range quite drastically in price. G.M.’s On-Star service for instance costs around $400 to setup and requires a contract, while Virgin Mobil is available for as little as $79.00 for the device and does require or have a contract. For the summer traveler, the no contract pay as you go appears to be the better method and is the option I have decided to take for now. Once you’ve purchase the modem and activated it, (if I have my signals straight), you only need to buy an airtime card which gives you unlimited browsing access and a set number of megabytes or gigabytes download size depending on the card you purchase ranging in price from about $20 to $60 dollars good for one month of service. For the most part, browsing in unlimited, but downloads at the premium speeds are limited. Virgin Mobile’s “Broadband2go” lists the following cost table on their WEB site: (Note: I like Amazon.com for their reliability and competitive pricing - but you might find it cheaper else where on the WEB) Virgin Mobile’s (Broadband2go) 3g wireless modem ($99.99) Price Expires Capacity Use it for-(without attachments) $10 10 days 100 MB 5 hrs WEB browsing, 25 min video, Or 10,000 emails $20 30 days 300 MB 15 hrs WEB browsing, Or 75 min video, Or 30,000 emails $30 30 days 1 GB 50 hrs WEB browsing, Or 4 hour video, Or 100,000 emails $60 30 days 5 GB 250 hrs WEB browsing, Or 21 hours video, Or 500,000 emails Or another option is to go with a ‘mifi’ wireless personal hotspot unit like the ‘Cradlepoint PHS300 Personal Hotspot advertised to the right, to expand wireless connection within a short restricted area. This would allow everyone within the range of the ‘mifi’ transmitter to access the internet that is in the fairly short range of the unit. The “PHS300” is ideal for a up to four computers in a group of people such as business associates or family group on a long road trips. The Personal Hotspot Unit can be setup secured or unsecured. Unsecured would make it a public “Hotspot” accessible to anyone within its range. If you want a greater range or more than four (4) people to be able to have wifi accessibility you need to look into a more powerful unit. Keep in mind more that 4 accessing a unit such as the “PHS300” would slow down access immensely, it is therefore highly recommended it be setup as a secure unit. To set it up unsecured would give anyone within 15 to 30 ft. access. Internet Hotspots are areas such as Starbuck’s™ Coffee Shops, Panaro’s™, and McDonald’s™, etc. which provide a wifi internet “HOTspot” to give their customers access while they are patronizing their facility. Anyone with a wireless modem either built-in or plugged into their laptop can take advantage of the “Hotspot” while enjoying a byte to eat, so long as they remain in range of the signal. Be fore warned, Public Hotspots are not secure and make data stored on your computer accessible to anyone within that network. Some other Hotspots are airports, public transportation terminals, hotels, motels, etc. A wireless personal hotspot router is not only for business, it’s great for keeping a couple of antsy teens busy and out of each others hair by making access to internet games or communicating on a social media network ie:, facebook or myspace, etc. reducing the stress of bumper to bumper traffic. I’ve included a couple of YouTube video's to give you an idea of what wireless personal “Hotspots” are all about. The 3G wirless modem video is followed by the Cradlepoint PHS300 Personal Hotspot Wireless Router YouTube video The Cradlepoint PHS300 - Personal HotSpot Copyright © angbiondo.com (2009) All articles posted on http://www.angbiondo.com are the property of authors and publishers of angbiondo.com. All rights and privileges are reserved Articles are free to our readers for private use and sharing. Readers may freely reproduce and share any article posted on angbiondo.com so long as this notice is included along with the copyright© notice. Articles and post may not be altered in any way, Use for personal gain or the sale of reproduced articles is expressly forbidden. Angbiondo.com™, is the trademark of angbiondo.com and cannot be copied, altered, or used without the express written permission of angbiondo.com http://angbiondo.com/?p=473 By: Ang Biondo Recently a CBS news broadcast made many of its viewers aware of a crucial security breach in technology we all considered a harmless unique convenience. Many of us use this convenience daily and never give it a second thought; un-aware of the imposition and danger that lurks somewhere in the future. Our private personal information is about to be made public. This imposing technology is recording information pertinent to our private personal lives that may be shared with the WORLD, without our knowledge or permission. Yup! – Personal information that is required of us by those we must deal with ie: doctors, banks, insurance companies, etc. We give this information assuming that it will be maintained in their files of record and not go any further. These records like that listed on our driver’s license, birth certificate, medical records, mortgage, banking, and various account information, etc., etc., etc., and we don’t even think twice about it. The culprit is the innocent looking copy machine in every office with which we do business. The CBS report made us aware of the presence of a hard drive in copiers that record a copy of every document or photo that is copied in it. If you missed the CBS report, be sure to watch this ‘YouTube’ video: So, now that you are aware of this – what should you do to prevent additional imposition on your privacy and help protect your personal information from being shared with the world? Well, here are some things that might help, but unfortunately are by all means not fool-proof. Use your own scanner attached to your home computer to scan a copy of your new insurance card/s or personal documents to present to those who require it, ie. your doctor’s office, Social Security Office, potential employer etc., so they won’t have to make a copy on their leased machine or one that will eventually be traded for a new one. If you don’t have a scanner, you can purchase one on-line for under $50.00. I have compiled a list of my current medications, surgeries, allergies, and pertinent information usual lists on the medical form most doctors offices require you to fill out on an annual basis. This saves me time by leaving only the information I don’t have listed to fill out. The rest of the questions I qualify with a statement to ‘see attached’. You can also scan and organize documents you will be required to share with banking and mortgaging facilities, insurance companies and any other entity you absolutely must share personal information with. Inform those you are mandated to share the information with, that you have been made aware of the presence of a hard-drive in photo-copiers by the CBS report, and that you will make the copies for them. You can even go as far as printing a ‘DO NOT COPY’ warning on the document with a notice of legal repercussion if your request is violated. Let them know that if your privacy is violated by the release of a copy of the document you have entrusted to them, will be considered as an invasion of privacy and you intend to take legal action afforded to you under the law. A simple request to not copy the document will suffice for most of us. However if you feel a need to protect your information you might want to include a statement at the bottom of the document that might say: This document is the property of “(you)”, and is submitted to “(the recipient)” to be contained within their files of record. Any information contained herein is supplied solely for their use and is not for any reason to be copied by use of a photo-copier, or device containing or equipped with a recording device such as a hard-drive or multi giga-byte chip capable or may be capable of storing information by analog or digital means., Since I am not an attorney and have no formal law training. I offer the above statement solely as a sample text. I strongly suggest that if you have an issue with photo-copiers recording your personal information, you contact an attorney for the proper language or protective statement to use. I for one appreciate and thank CBS for making me aware of this and intend to contact my Congressional representatives requesting they submit or support a bill to protect the unsuspecting consumer from this intrusion on our privacy. If you would like to write your representatives to encourage them to sponsor or support a bill to make it mandatory to destroy or securely erase these drives with software making it impossible or improbable to recover information stored on it, you can do so by contacting your representatives by clicking on the following link: Congress [1] Senate [2] According to the report, I doubt that many corporations and business are or were aware of the presence of a hard drive or recording media in their copy machine. It seems to me that this information should have been mandatory information supplied to the purchaser or renter by the manufacturer of the photo-copier. Copyright © 2009 - angbiondo.com All articles posted on http://www.angbiondo.com are the property of authors and publishers of angbiondo.com. All rights and privileges are reserved Articles are free to our readers for private use and sharing. Readers may freely reproduce and share any article posted on angbiondo.com so long as this notice is included along with the copyright© notice. Articles and post may not be altered in any way, Use for personal gain or the sale of reproduced articles is expressly forbidden. Angbiondo.com™, is the trademark of angbiondo.com and cannot be copied, altered, or used without the express written permission of angbiondo.com [1] http://www.house.gov/ [2] http://www.senate.gov/ http://angbiondo.com/?p=435 By: Ang Biondo In the previous article we described what a ‘Social Network’ is, and how infectious it can be within our lives. This article looks at the potential ramifications of Social networking, but also texting and modern modes of communication in general -- by our children -- and the possible adverse effects on their lives. To start at the beginning, we should first look at the communication equipment such as cell phones and “blackberry-like” devices we all use, and have become addicted to and use ardently in our day to day lives. Originally they were intended as industrial aids. It was not long however, before industry realized what a wonderful convenience (and money maker) they would be in our private lives as well. They have vastly changed the communication world as we knew it. Within the last ten years we’ve seen the cost of long distance calling all but collapse. We can now talk nationwide and around the world for pennies, and cell phones are so affordable we even supply our young children with them. While those points stand to benefit us, it has become so convenient and affordable, that they have become second nature to us and we assume our children are usinge them in a responsible manner. Our culture promotes a “status quo” mentality, but the question we have to ask ourselves is this: ‘Am I really helping my child by giving him/her this device, or, aiding and abetting?’ How many of us have seen a young child fly through the keyboard of a handheld device bantering with a barrage of time-consuming one word meaningless texts, but also, how many teenagers have suffered the consequence of misuse as well? To answer the question honestly, it brings up several other questions, which should be answered first. While some of the answers are relative to age-- some are not! -- While you are financially, morally, and legally responsible for your children, you need to ask yourself - Why am I buying the device? Is it peer pressure, or a genuine need for each of us to have the ability to contact the other in the event of an emergency? Will I provide texting and/or internet access for the device as well?  If so... Is my child responsible enough to understand minute and usage limits if they apply, but especially understand the importance of safe use?  Will they use it as a toy for gaming, texting pranks, or meaningless talk and messaging burning up expensive minutes?  Do they understand the meaning of their content within a message to their friends, and the possibility that it may adversely come back to them?  Are they old enough to understand the seriousness and privacy issues attached to a ‘Twitter’, ‘MySpace’, or ‘FaceBook’, etc.... On an open ‘social media network’ that could possibly expose them to the unwanted attention of predators/perverts who can track their every movement? Consider:  How will the use of it impact their priorities and other responsibilities?  Could it serve to enhance their social network, or possibly “status” because “everyone else has one,” only to become a significant distraction?  How will I prevent the use of it from becoming a distraction to their Studies, homework, and grades as well as responsibilities inside and outside the home? As parents we are responsible for their engagement in the “real world” and family, and not overrun by the virtual. Verbal and social skills: What commitment will I make beforehand to establish the “rules of “engagement” and time management for use? Are the consequences of misuse and/or mismanagement, something we can live with as a family? Before purchasing “that device” and the privilege that comes with it, we cannot ignore basic human development. From about the age of eight, “friends” become a huge priority in a child’s life. It is a time when they begin to reach outside of the family unit for validation. However, it is also both scary and sobering to say that in recent years, the science also shows that the emotional I.Q. of a young adult does not fully develop until they are in their early twenties. They exercise impulsive if not poor judgment much of the time until their brain has physiologically reached “the age of reason” and control and logic begin to override. We have recently heard the legislative discussions regarding the prosecution of two teenage boys -- that may be tried as adults -- guilty of the newest term “sexting” via their cell phones. If you have not had the discussion with your child about responsibility and consequences, do it today! Not only are kids not concerned or educated necessarily about the ramifications of their “silliness” or “teenage” behavior, but more importantly, they do not necessarily have the emotional maturity and restraint to even think about the consequences of sending inappropriate material via their phone or “Social Network” before they actually hit “send.” Their responsible behavior behind the “send button,” can so often be overridden by the need to fit in and appear “cool.” But what seemed like a “good idea” at the time can have VERY serious emotional, if not legal, consequences afterwards. In the last article, we touched on the topic of exposure. What kids do not necessarily understand -- unless you have had the conversation with them -- is that EVERYTHING is retraceable AND traceable! Whether it is bullying or inappropriate content, all of it can be retrieved to use against them, whether they think they are hiding behind deleted text, or brazen enough not to care. However, the other side of the discussion at hand is the vulnerability in the immaturity of a young adult’s brain. Even those brazen enough to think they are outsmarting the system by using a friends phone to send a malicious or prank message, are most often implemented by the friend who loaned the phone in the first place. Incidents of this nature often result in unfavorable results for all concerned. A young girl, for instance – a freshman in high-school, or even college-- who is communicating with a friend through a public open channel ‘Social Media Network’, is unaware that a predator is reading every line she is entering. Need I say more? Is it any wonder why there are so many incidents of missing children in the world today? How many of our children use these devices as their “diaries” and social postings for their calendars, without realizing they are public domain, and often a playground to the deviant? Even a simple notation of time and place leaves them vulnerable to someone looking for a time to strike. And, it is not limited to girls, but is as valid for boys as well. Beyond their cell phone or handheld device, all information typed into a ‘social media network’ or ‘texted’, is vulnerable and in most cases available to anyone on the network be it friend or foe. Even if you have the security on your end setup to limit viewing your profile information and conversations to those on your contact list, THE INFORMATION THEY RECEIVE FROM YOU IS STILL PUBLIC IF THEY DO NOT HAVE THE SECURITY IN PLACE ON THEIR END!!! This happens time and time again! You begin to see how sooner or later, the information your child intended to be private, ends up in the public network for the world to see. Let’s also consider a text sent to a “friend,” most especially gossip or nasty words that can easily be forwarded to someone else on an impulse leaving your child completely exposed to the consequences. Are we really willing to jeopardize the safety of our children, and their emotional, and possibly physical well being for the sake of convenience? I send out this PLEA to all parents, and ask you to count all costs, beyond the monetary. If you insist on providing your child with a communication device:  Wait until they are old enough to fully understand and comprehend the responsibility and consequences to have the use of such a powerful device. Both you and your child must be fully comprehensive of the hazards as well as the social aspects of access to these venues of communication. It is wise to exercise caution and parental authority throughout the period of adolescents that your child is in your charge. Remember, ‘The Social Media Network’ is are public forums, open to all. If you can see what your child is texting, so can everyone else worldwide. Are you smooping, or infringing on your child’s privacy? Since it is a public network, most certainly NOT! Ang if you are accused of doing so, remind your offspring that it is a PUBLIC network for all to see. As responsible parents we are responsible for monitoring our childresn’s communications often. Never assume the system is not being abused. There is a lot in the old adage “Kids will be Kids!”. Since you are the one paying the bill, you have the control to ensure it is not being abused or that your child is not sending messages which can place them in a precarious position, or possibly you in a position of financial obligation. Make absolutely sure your child knows the importance of PASSWORD SECURITY. It doesn’t matter which device your child is using, be it a computer, iPod®, Cell phone, etc., they all need a password to access the ‘social media network’ account. It seems we all realize the importance of a password when using our computers, but it seems to stop there. We seem to get careless outside of the computer environment. I’ve heard kids in the mall freely giving their ‘social media network’ password to their friends in ear shot of dozens of people. Who is to say a jealous friend in the group will not use this password and device to send a nasty-gram to a mutual “friend” in an attempt to gain favor for themselves. We are especially lax with cell phones... Such an incident recently happened within my own family. It just so happened that this “friend” was also sneaking use of other peoples phones when they were not aware, sending nasty messages while pretending to be the owner. Make sure your child knows where their cell phone is at all times, and that it is in a secure location with a password as well! If the phone considered does not have a password feature, then it may be worth the upgrade. Make it a rule that your child treats their hand held communication device like a bank account. Make it known to them that as long as you are paying the bill, the device is to be treated as your property and is not to be loaned to anyone – not even for a moment. Especially with cell phones... With the cost of pre-paid phones and cell phone contracts these days you can rest assured that if your child’s friends parents want them to have access to a cell phone, they likely would have their own. So if your child is loaning their friend a phone (barring an emergency situation of course) they need to realize they are assuming the responsibility and risk on behalf of your family! Obviously, your responsible adult supervision and “communication” at home lays the foundation for responsible “communication” behind the send button of your child. However, your responsible adult supervision and communication at home may be the only thing that stands between your child and harm’s way. Please monitor your child’s use of these devices. Respect for others and responsibly start with a conversation at home -- person-to-person and eye to eye! BE A PART Of THE SOLUTION -- NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM! Copyright © angbiondo.com (2009) All articles posted on http://www.angbiondo.com are the property of authors and publishers of angbiondo.com. All rights and privileges are reserved Articles are free to our readers for private use and sharing. Readers may freely reproduce and share any article posted on angbiondo.com so long as this notice is included along with the copyright© notice. Articles and post may not be altered in any way, Use for personal gain or the sale of reproduced articles is expressly forbidden. Angbiondo.com™, is the trademark of angbiondo.com and cannot be copied, altered, or used without the express written permission of angbiondo.com http://angbiondo.com/?p=410 By: Ang Biondo It seems so many these days are into the ‘Social Media Network Epidemic’. Be it ‘FaceBook.com’ ‘LinkedIn.com’, ‘MySpace.com’, or ‘Twitter.com’, they are all part of the social media network craze. From job leads, celebrities, the news media, to best friends and long lost acquaintances, it seems everyone is trying to get everyone else involved in this social media networking craze. The good side is that these social media networking sites make it extremely easy to keep your finger on the pulse of the most current developments and keep in touch with your friends, relatives and loved ones. There is however a dark side to this modern day technological convenience we cherish so much. If you are not familiar with Social Networking or what the mechanics of it, I suggest you watch this video featuring Mela Fever of the Common Craft Show as he explains ‘Social Networking in Plain English’ in this ‘YouTube’ video found on ‘YouTube’ and can be accessed at the following link, or viewing the video by clicking on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc Mr. Fever explains the mechanics of ‘social networking’ in a manner that is easy for all to understand.[1] It seems those most interested in SMN (social media networking) are the innocent, and unfortunately, the most vulnerable -- the trusting and often naïve minds of our youth; with never a thought to phishers, spammers, and scammers. For those of you who still think ‘phishing’ has something to do with a pole, or ‘spamers’, meat-in-a-can, and ‘scammer’ someone knocking at your front door, you are just as vulnerable as our kids. As guardians of those too young to discern we have a certain obligation to educate, but also to be educated, to protect against those who prey and do harm to both young and old. How many times have you experienced the pride of an adult that takes bragging rights for the children that “know more than they do?” We live amongst a “computer savvy” generation of youth who have never known life without computers. Which begs the question, how many of you know what your kids are surfing or who is connected to your child’s SMN? Sadly we hear all to often, and many times to late, the story of a child that has been the victim of a bully, or worse, predator, via an SMN, and the parent didn’t have a clue. And to add insult to injury, many of us setup or aged parents on a ‘SMN’, thinking we are doing them a favor to keep them in touch with the family and current events – only to find we’ve set them up to be scammed. So keep in mind that we are obligated to protect our elderly as well. While I have been a student of the computer age for many years now, I must admit I have not shared an interest in the SMN arena. However, recent discussions have helped me see the value of understanding this ever growing rage, and have made me much more sensitive to the precarious nature of it. So many people stand in the majority of the computer illiterate, but race through a keyboard, networking site, or blackberry as second nature. It is my hope that just one person might be a little more discerning in safeguarding themselves and their loved one(s) after reading this article. So knowing this and possessing a desire to protect our own children, we all must realize are obligation to inform those people we know who fall into the computer illiterate category of the importance of keeping their children as well as ours safe while on line. If you know a person that may fit into this category, or maybe borderline – print this article out and give it to them. Maybe, just maybe – it might help. Let’s start by considering the fact that all of these “tools” for communication that we love so much are creating a “Big Brother” environment allowing everyone to see virtually every keystroke you type on your keyboard. Government agencies, big industry, spammers, and anyone else (like your employer) who is interested in, or may have a vested interest in you, can not only easily see who you are communicating with, but see what you are talking about as well. For anyone wishing to create an on-line profile, there are a variety of communications providers free for the taking. The caveat is, how many of you are providing information that you were not aware of to an entity or potential predator you were not aware of? Employers have even used the on-line profile of an employee to fire them, and it’s all perfectly legal. Why, because that employee placed their profile onto a public ‘social network’ of their own volition and posted things about their employers business that violated company policy. The commercial aspect for the government and big business to monitor ‘social media networks’ should be obvious, especially in the case of ‘Homeland Security’ and spammers. They are good tools for potential employers in evaluating a potential employee before making a commitment to hire them. In this day and age many employers ask for an email address on their application. This makes it easy for any personnel employee viewing their application to acquire a personal ‘social media network’ profile for the potential employee if one has been created. The potential employer does not even have to ask if the potential employee has a ‘social media network’ account. In the case of spammers, it allows them to track your likes and dislikes, thus the junk mail and e-mail. Note that all of these services default to a public communication or unlocked mode. This means that unless you set the defaults to protect your privacy, your profile, friends, or contact list, and even your computer is open to public access, including any private or financial information making you vulnerable to identity theft. If you are naïve enough to think you are protected from intrusion from hackers because you have a grade “A” anti-virus/spyware killer, you only need look as far as the type of ‘spam’ or ‘junk mail’ you are receiving in your email in box. In 1962 a 17 year old Australian surfing the net hacked into the super secure Pentagon computers, remarking “child’s play” when asked how he managed to hack into the Pentagon’s most secret Nuclear Arsenal files. Pentagon officials were highly concerned that If a 17 year old hobbyist gained access so easily, how difficult would it be for others to do so. And when they thought they had the hole plugged a second incident occurred. In 2005 once again the headlines featured an article of a 39 year old hacker who hacked into the Pentagons super secure computers. This raised havoc in the Pentagon since the happenings of 9/11 were still very fresh. Homeland security was extremely concerned that if an amateur could get into highly confidential files how difficult would it be for al-Qaida, if they hadn’t already. This hacker was inspired by the movie “War Games” on the movie circuit back in 1983 when he viewed the movie at the age of 17. Unfortunately I didn’t follow the story through conclusion, but if the U.S. was successful in extradition from England, he would face up to 70 years in prison. The government’s computers are among the most secure in the world, and they were compromised by amateurs. Think about it. Mere amateurs often find ‘backdoor’s’ to sophisticated software applications which we feel so comfortable using. And I am talking about applications which are not on a “PUBLIC” communication, or social network. So – you see-- you and your data are very vulnerable, and you have no guarantee of privacy. If you are using “Facebook®”, “my-space®”, “twitter®”, or any social network media service, set your defaults to protect your privacy and the privacy of those on your ‘friends’ or contact list. If you don’t know how to change the defaults, contact your service and ask instructions on how to do so. Of course this is useless if your contacts, or their contacts don’t set their security as well. But then by setting the security to limit those who have access to you defeats the purpose of a ‘social network’ The best Tip I can give you to help secure your account: Password: When choosing a password, don’t choose the obvious. Dates connected to you such as birthday, anniversary, etc., are a bad idea. These are very popular and easy to hack. It is also a bad idea to use names, a name-number combination, ie: “Jane” or “Jane23”, etc. Hackers have no problem breaking these passwords and quickly get into your account.  Create passwords using a combination of alpha-numeric, or alpha-numeric plus symbols, ie: “n0rm4n”, or n0rm4n*2o3”. Notice that I replaced the letter “o” in Norman with the number “0”, and the “a” with the number “4”, which resembles an upper case “A”. In the second case, I replaced the number “0” with the letter “o” and separated “n0rm4n” and “2o3” with an asterisk “*”.  The use of two totally unrelated words separated with a “symbol, ie: “basket*guise”, etc., makes it extremely difficult for a hacker to decipher. Unless a hacker is bent on hacking into your particular account, the time it takes to hack a complex password, isn’t worth the time. Never create a easy password a hacker will have no problem deciphering  If you are connected to more than one social network - NEVER use the same password across social networks  Always keep your password personal, NEVER give it out – even to your closest friends. Some Things, like passwords NEED to remain confidential.  Change your password often, ie: monthly, quarterly, or immediately if your account has been compromised.   Upgrade your security software and virus definitions ofter:  If your anti-virus/spyware software does not update automatically, do it yourself often. A good security suite will update automatically, I use “Vipre” from Sunbelt Software” and it updates several times daily. The creators of malicious software and spyware are busy people and it takes a good Security Suite to keep up with them.  When selecting a “Security Suite”, don’t let price fool you. Paying $99 for a Security Suite does not make it the best. You need to compare the features of the software to see exactly what the program is checking for and what it does or how it handles what it detects. Often times one is paying for the name and not the service. Some top name anti-virus/spyware software is very intrusive, and embeds itself deeply into your system, making it near impossible to remove. They also want to store your personal information on their web-site in the name of security, and although they may say they wont give or sell your information to anyone, they can’t guarantee that a disgruntled employee will not violate that promise. Some Additional Tips for Parental Control: If your child is on-line, it is IMPORTANT:  To monitor exactly what they are doing online.  That a parent realizes that he or she must fulfill their obligation as a parent and not a buddy to their children. We can be both, but it is necessary that our children know that you are in control, and the rules must be followed.  To fulfill our duty and moral obligation to teach our children right from wrong, • We teach our children to respect others  That your child falls under your financial and social responsibility. I shouldn’t have to remind anyone that parents are not only financially responsible, but fully responsible for a minor child’s actions. If your off-spring is a college student, New York State law says your child is your dependant up to the age of 25, or as long as they are in school. This makes you as a parent fiscally responsible for that child and you assume all liability. If your not sure of the law in your state, I would check with your states attorney generals office. I can’t emphasize the importance of knowing what your child is doing on line strong enough. I work with a constituent who’s computer and a number of personal articles were confiscated by the FBI, because their 13 year old emailed what could have been interpreted as a threatening letter to the President. You can’t imagine how miserable they made his life. Responsible parents should be interested in what their children are doing on-line and should consider:  Becoming at least basically familiar with the computer and social network media’s.  If your child asks for permission to join a social network, be it FaceBook.com®, MySpace.com®, LinkedIn.com®, or Twitter.com®, etc., you should:  Be savvy enough to create the account for them, and make it very clear that it is a privilege that can easily be lost by abuse.  You should create the password and profile for them, and keep the password secure from the child so that you must sign them in.  You should lock, or set the defaults to remove it from a public network and make it as private as possible. These services default to un-locked and are open to anyone on-line who stumbles across your child’s network, or profile. Unfortunately there are devious people in the vast internet world who are constantly searching the web for just such open networks.  You should make rules and determine who is on their “friends, or contact” list.  You need to and should monitor them while on line. Knowing it is impossible and/or impractical to be watching over ones shoulder, just being in the same room is a deterrent to breaking the rules. DON’T LET THE COMPUTER BECOME A BABY SITTER!  Set time limits, and restrict access until other more important chores are done, such as homework, cleaning their room, etc.  The key here is COMMON-SENSE Unfortunately in this day and age, the computer is an essential tool for the young developing mind. The world has come to depend on computers, and they are instrumental in every aspect of industry and education. To take the use of a computer away from a child as punishment for abuse of the internet is like taking their school books away from them. If they abuse their privileges on the internet, take away the internet, not the computer. If it is necessary to enhance the punishment, take away their gaming rights, (on all electronic devices). They should be allowed at least prepare their homework and print it out. If they insist they need the computer to research their homework, a week or two of referencing books from the local library should convince them that violating their internet privileges just isn’t worth it. Since access to the internet is available through computers at the library these days, it would be a good idea to accompany them when on that trip to the local library. FaceBook.com suggests the following to remain secure while logged into FaceBook, And although this is from FaceBook.com it also applies to any social network application. Contact the Social Media Network you subscribe to for more specific details for your application: Steps You Should Take:  If spam has been sent from your account: Reset your Facebook password immediately. You can do this by clicking on the "Forgot Your Password" link on the login page or by going to the Account Settings page once logged in.  If you can't reset the password on your account because the email address you use to log in has been changed, or if your account has been disabled, contact our User Operations team.  Run a virus scan on your computer, as you may have inadvertently downloaded malware. Free virus scanners are posted below. If you've seen spam sent from a friend's account:  Tell your friend to follow the steps above.  Warn those who received the spam not to click on it, and to delete it from their Walls and Inboxes immediately. Free Online Virus Scanners: If spam has been sent from your account, you should immediately run a virus scan using one of these sites:  http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner [1]  http://security.symantec.com [2]  http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/scan.asp?affid=56 [3]  http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8 [4]  http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm [5]  http://ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx [6]  http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan [7]  http://ttp://www.eset.com/onlinescan [8] Support for Your Computer: If your Windows PC or Mac has been infected with malware or a virus, check out these helpful sites:  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222 [9] • You may also want to check out OpenDNS. OpenDNS is a free security service that will help protect you from phishing scams on Facebook, and while browsing the Internet: https://www.opendns.com/start/?src=fb MY apologies if I have given you a sense of apprehension or an un-easy feeling about your once pleasant computing experience, but since I consider myself a perpetual PC novice, and know what I am capable of doing with a computer, it scares me to think what an hacker experienced with mal-intent could do. My friends often ask why I consider myself a perpetual computer novice, and all I can answer is: If you consider the constant evolution of computers since their inception, then - one who considers themselves an expert – is a fool. The expertise I hold, is in the obsolete, and the knowledge I have merely touches on the current, which is obsolete before I gain knowledge of it, so - am I not a novice? [1] You can view or purchase a host of other educational video’s in plain English by Melo Fever at: http://www.commoncraft.com/ Many thanks to my daughters and daughter-in-law – Lynn, Michelle, and Kirsten, for their crucial and much appreciated input into this article. Since I refuse to get involved with ‘Social Media Networking’ at this time, their experiences in this field proved to be invaluable in this field. I also wish to thank everyone who supplied information and helped in the research. Thanks to all. Copyright © angbiondo.com (2009) All articles posted on http://www.angbiondo.com are the property of authors and publishers of angbiondo.com. All rights and privileges are reserved Articles are free to our readers for private use and sharing. Readers may freely reproduce and share any article posted on angbiondo.com so long as this notice is included along with the copyright© notice. Articles and post may not be altered in any way, Use for personal gain or the sale of reproduced articles is expressly forbidden. Angbiondo.com™, is the trademark of angbiondo.com and cannot be copied, altered, or used without the express written permission of angbiondo.com [1] http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner [2] http://security.symantec.com [3] http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/scan.asp?affid=56 [4] http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8 [5] http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm [6] http://ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx [7] http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan [8] http://ttp://www.eset.com/onlinescan [9] http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222 http://angbiondo.com/?p=394 By: Ang Biondo Funny how things have a knack for sneaking up on you, and Christmas is no exception. And, in today’s economy with so many of us out of work its probably a good idea to get an early start at making that list and checking it twice. Of coarse if you are like me, my intentions are good – but we’re always doing that last minute running around. Never the less, buying for others is always great fun, and seeing their faces when they open their gift always brings us great joy. I know we all have the most fun buying for the youngest generation. The toy makers supply us with a host of new toys and dolls both inert and animated to make that job fairly easy, however the young adults to geriatrics are sometime difficult. So for those of you who in the position of not quite knowing what to get for that college student, young adult, parent, or grandparent that seems to have everything, I have a few suggestions.  Let's get into those suggestions. Most all young adults and college students I know are heavily into electronics. Electronic gifts offer a host of cherished gifts in all price ranges. If you are looking for stocking fillers think about: • Memory cards: Memory cards can either serve as a stocking filler or an expensive gift depending on its capacity and speed. Memory cards and flash drives are rated for speed with a rating of 1 to 6 with 6  Memory with a rating of 1 to 3 is good for use as a storage device where speed is not a factor. It is less expensive and comes in a variety of capacities starting at 1 GB. Memory with a rating of 4 to 6 is ideal for digital camera use. The faster speeds ensure clean clear pictures eliminating the blurred fuzzy shots caused be the write delay when using slower memory. The camera shutter remains open while writing to the memory card, the speed of which the memory card can be written to will determine the clarity of the photo. Batteries: It seems everything you buy today requires batteries. A supply of D to AAA sizes make ideal stocking stuffers since they power everything from toys to digital cameras.  Calculators, Pre-paid Cell phones, and hand held electronic games also make good stocking stuffers.  Inexpensive Calculators: are ideal for the older generation like myself whose brain cells are starting to dry up and could use a little help at the grocery store to keep me in budget.  Pre-paid Cell phones: are ideal for the retiree who no longer only needs a cell phone or the big monthly bill that goes along with it. Cell phone companies like Tracfone® offer phones and pre-paid phone cards which offer lifetime double minutes with the purchase of the phone. You can buy a good quality phone with 800 double minutes for a total of 1600 minutes good for a full year for under $130.00. The nice thing about buying a phone package for someone, is that you can always buy them extra minutes for other occasions during the year.  There are a host of hand held and key-chain games on the market which will offer the recipient hours of entertainment while traveling or just goofing off. They are cheap and make great gifts.  Getting into the more serious stuff costing $100.00 and more. Probably one of the most cherished gifts for the college student or young executive on the market today would be “Kindle”. Kindle is an electronic book reader that can hold the content of 1500 books. If you have seen the backpacks some of these students need to carry, believe me reducing that pack by 6 to 10 books is a blessing. You have to feel sorry for a student you see running from one building on campus to another with a 50 lb. backpack slung over one shoulder and a 20 lb. laptop computer case slung over the other. Kindle can reduce the size of that load immensely, and when needed the material the student needs will be right there at his/her finger-tips. For the executive or traveler, Kindle can hold the contents of that needed reference book or mystery novel to help wield away that long overseas flight, or wait at the airport.   Laptop, Notebook, and the new Netbook computers are the ultimate gift for anyone in this day of electronics. From the student to the home maker researching a homework assignment to getting a recipe off the internet, computers are a life’s necessity in today’s world. Un-like the desktop computer, these mobile cousins are specifically designed for communication and internet interface. Many come with built in cameras to offer visual communication ability allowing the user to see the person they are communicating with. We especially liked this feature when our son was stationed overseas. We got to talk to him and his wife often face to face, making it a little easier for us to live with the fact that they were in a dangerous place so far away. Digital Cameras and Photo Printers: We all love to take pictures, from landscape to family all pictures provide us with precious memories that we look back upon over the years. Some make us laugh and others make us cry, but all a memorable and we cherish them for as long as we can. What better way to acquire these memorable moments than through a digiial camera. No film needed, a $7.00 2 GB memory card will hold several hundred photo’s depending on the resolution, and their digital. What does digital mean to you? It means that unlike celluloid film it does not break down, it does not lose clarity or quality when copied and it will last virtually forever. As long as you have a device to read that memory card, you will always have that picture. Or you may want to print the picture out. Photo Printers are designed to print to photo quality paper with special water proof or resistant inks. The quality of the photo rivals or exceeds that of the best photo labs. They are extremely affordable and the photo media is competitively priced to meet or beat developed prints. For the frivolous and game lovers, the expensive electronic games are sure to bring a smile to the whole family. Everyong likes to play games, and when they’re electronic it brings the biggest smile of all. This year you might want to consider one of the Sony™, Microsoft™ or Nintendo™ game consoles. The good news this year is the latest video game consoles from Sony™ and Microsoft™ have new lower prices and will be in high demand. On August 25th, Sony released the newest member of the PS3 family. It’s slimmer, lighter, and only $299. The Play-Station 3® 120 GB has Wi-Fi and Blu-ray player built in. Additionally, Play-Station 3 80 GB and Play-Station 3 160 GB consoles are available on Amazon.com at new, low prices of $299 and $399, respectively. The Elite and Pro versions of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console are also available at new, low prices on Amazon.com: $299 for the Xbox 360 Elite and $249 for the Xbox 360 Pro. Featuring a large library of great games, and an online community with over 20 million people to play with or against, the Xbox 360 is a must-have experience. Unlike the government I know you are spending your own money so I know the price is important. So I have helped somewhat with your gift selections this year. So let me be the first to wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!, or HAPPY CHANAKAH! And have a great time shopping. Copyright © angbiondo.com (2009) All articles posted on http://www.angbiondo.com are the property of authors and publishers of angbiondo.com. All rights and privileges are reserved Articles are free to our readers for private use and sharing. Readers may freely reproduce and share any article posted on angbiondo.com so long as this notice is included along with the copyright© notice. Articles and post may not be altered in any way, Use for personal gain or the sale of reproduced articles is expressly forbidden. Angbiondo.com™, is the trademark of angbiondo.com and cannot be copied, altered, or used without the express written permission of angbiondo.com http://angbiondo.com/?p=379 By Ang Biondo     I hope everyone had a great summer.  I’m sure with family get-togethers, summer travel, and the usual fix-it projects around the house everyone’s been busy and not having much time left for computing.  Other than e-mail most people don’t tend to think about computers until this time of year when we realize our kids are soon off to school.   Well it is that time of year again, and with the start of school right around the corner everyone is hustling and bustling to find a suitable computer for school or to take to college.  Between tuition, books and supplies, the added expense of a new wardrobe and possibly housing expenses it doesn’t leave much for a decent notebook computer.   However, today’s college curriculum mandates the use of high tech tools such as computers and calculators, etc.  It leaves us no choice but to invest in these expensive tools if we want our children to stand a chance in today’s scholastic environment.     Note (important):   ·         For the freshman college student just off to school it’s probably a good idea not to rush into things.  The college will assign the new student an “edu” address.  This is a unique e-mail address each student is assigned by the school which they use to communicate with their professors for various assignments etc.  Once assigned an “edu” address (usually once registered or the 1st day of school) it opens a host of educational academic discounts for the new student.  This e-mail address is needed to be eligible for the deeply discounted computers, software and various school related supplies they will use throughout their college years.  If the student has been assigned their “edu” address they can go ahead and start using it.  If the student has not yet been assigned an “edu” address and is able to wait until one is assigned the savings can be astronomical if he/she waits until then to purchase their computer and any software they will need for the classes they have chosen. . ·         Microsoft along with other major computer and software manufactures offer deeply discounted products to students but require they use their “edu” address when ordering.   Note:  It is important the student does not share his/her “edu” address with anyone.  The address is for use by the student only and is sometime registered to one computer only.  If this is so, they must place their orders from that computer and only that computer.   Be sure to check and understand the rules for use of your “edu” address.  It is a privilege and privileges can be lost.   Today’s economy has put a damper on the ability to run out to your local computer and electronics store a buy a computer off the rack.  Competition, theft, and high overhead has made it virtually non-feasible for these stores to maintain walk-in stores.  Most have closed their doors and gone the way of the internet to cut cost and become competitive.  The stores that I am aware of that have done so are:   List of Stores that closed and converted to internet stores (probably not complete)   ·         Circuit City                 http://circuitcity.com/ [1] ·         CompUSA:                 http://www.compusa.com/ [2] ·         Computer City:           http://www.computercity.com/ [3]   List of Businesses with stores and also on-line: (also probably not complete)   ·         Best Buy:                    http://www.bestbuy.com/ [4] ·         Office Depot               http://www.officedepot.com/ [5] ·         Office Max:                 http://www.officemax.com/ [6] ·         Staples                        http://www.staples.com/ [7]   On-line stores offering computer and electronics (more than likely not complete)   ·         Direct Buy                   http://www.directbuy.com/ [8] ·         Computer Geeks        http://www.geeks.com/ [9] ·         New Egg                     http://www.newegg.com/ [10] ·         Tiger Direct                 http://www.tigerdirect.com/ [11] ·         Zip Zoom Fly               http://www.zipzoomfly.com/ [12]   Some Major Computer Manufacturers who offer discounts to students:   ·         Apple Computer®™   http://www.apple.com/mac/ [13] ·         Dell®™                       http://www.Dell.com/ [14] ·         Gateway®™               http://www.gateway.com/ [15] ·         Hewlett Packard®™   http://HP.com/ [16]   Some Software Manufacturers who offer deep discounts to students using “edu’s”:   ·         Autodesk®: http://www.autodesk.com/ [17]        (makers of AutoCad)  AutoCad® is a computer aided design program used by architects and engineers in the design of their products and is capable of wire, 3D and 3D rendering as well as animating and rotating 3 dimensional objects . This product sells for $3000 plus dollars depending on the options included with it, but is available to the student for a 48 or 60 month license for about $150. ·         Adobe®™: http://www.adobe.com/ [18] (Adobe Acrobat products)  The standard version of Adobe Acrobat usually sells for about $400 but is available to the student for about $150.  This product includes “OCR” software which allows the student to scan text into a document.  The hours saved in typing over the course of the year is invaluable. ·         Microsoft®™: http://www.microsoft.com/ [19]    (Window’s® OS, and MSOffice®, and Visio®, etc.)  Most everyone is familiar with the capabilities of Microsoft Office® which sells for around $400.  Microsoft Office Ultimate® is available to the student for about $59.  Microsoft® Visio® is a valuable tool for students who’s curriculum includes detailed drawings and charts, etc.  Visio® sells for around $400 but is available to the student for around $150.   Note: the prices reflected above are not current and used only as samples to give the student an idea of the savings available to them with their school’s “edu” enrollment.    Other equipment that will prove useful to the new student:   ·         Document Scanner:  A document scanner is an essential tool for students to scan documents and convert to “PDF” files with Adobe Acrobat® or a suitable conversion program.  However a document scanner is just that, it scans pages.  For more universal use the student may want to consider a flat bed scanner which allows the student to scan pages from a book as well.   For those with limited funds (most of us) and need to start slowly, there is a host of free software available on the internet for downloading that will suffice and are great alternatives.  Some of these are:   Open Office®: Open Office is a Microsoft Office® alternative or look alike which is an open source product and has all the bells and whistles included in MS™ Office® plus.  Open Office® is a full office suite of which all products are fully compatible with the Microsoft® counter-part applications in MS™ Office®  It is capable of saving files in “PDF” format and is offered free to the public. Program developers are encouraged to participate in further development of the product.   Open Office® can be downloaded directly at: http://www.openoffice.org/ [20]   PrimoPDF®:  PrimoPdf® also offers a free document converter which allows you to print anything to a “PDF” (Adobe® portable document file format) document.   Portable Document Files, or “PDF” for short can be accessed and read by anyone with the free Adobe® Acrobat® reader program available for download from Adobe® (listed above)  The student will find that most documents and homework assignments they are required to submit will more than likely require to be in “PDF” format.   Computers on the cheap:   It will be hard to beat the deeply discounted offers to the students using their “edu’s”, but with all the other expenses involved at the start of the school year, that is sometimes not enough.  Remember college is multiple years and multiple semesters so you will be able to take advantage of your “edu” discounts throughout your college years.    You might want to consider a used or refurbished computer for your 1st semester and buy a new computer for your 2nd semester or even at the start of your 2nd year.  By this time you know exactly what you are looking for in a computer and optional peripherals.  You can probably sell your old computer to someone who is in a similar situation as you were when you started, and if you want to leave some of the data you accumulated for your courses during your 1st year, you might be able to make a small profit to boot.  (Don’t forget to remove all personal information before selling it.)   Some ways to save:   Check the links listed above for deals.  Look for “close outs”, “open box”, “factory refurbished”, and “re-certified”: ·         Close outs:  Last year’s models.  Vendor’s carry many products on consignment and  usually want to clean out their inventories.  They are offered incentives by the manufacturer to sell them rather than return the products. (usually carry a full factory warranty) ·         Open box:  The seal has been broken on the packaging, or the unit was used in display and cannot be sold as new by law.  (Usually carry a full factory warranty) ·         Factory refurbished: Unit is usually returned because it did not meet expected customer specifications, or had a minor factory defect.  The factory refurbishes the unit and resells as a refurbished unit.  Factory refurbished units usually carry a 30 to 90 day warranty. ·          Re-certified:  These units are generally older models on lease to large corporations for use by their executives and employees.  Usually banks, insurance companies, large corporations, etc.  Thus the reason for so many of the same unit.  These computers are almost always maintained by a factory representative on the job site.  They usually have an older operating system installed (probably Windows® XP Pro), a larger hard drive than normally equipped and probably a full compliment or maximum amount of memory installed, making them good candidates for a freshman college student.  More than likely it will not have wireless capability, but is easily remedied with a PCMCIA Ethernet adapter available for $10 to $40 on line.   Note: in 90% of all occasions electronic equipment will fail within the 1st 48 hours of use.  In the case of all electronics new or used, you can simulate a burn-in by leaving the computer running continuously for 48 hours.  If it doesn’t fail in that time, you will probably never have a problem with it unless its abused.    Factories burn-in the motherboards by placing them in an oven for a specific period of time at a higher than normal temperature to emulate this 48 hour period.     Copyright © AngeloBiondo.com™ (2009)    All contents are the sole property of AngeloBiondo.com.   AngeloBiondo.com reserves the right to change, modify or delete articles and recipes without notice.  The readers of AngeloBiondo.com are allowed to download, print and share material contained herein without pre authorization, so long as the material is not sold copied, modified or changed in any way, The material contained herein, may not under no condition be used for profit and/or personal gain. All shared copies must contain this notice and the copyright© must be included.  AngeloBiondo.com™ is the trademark of AngeloBiondo.com™ and cannot be copied, reproduced or used without the explicit written consent of geloBiondo.com™ [1] http://circuitcity.com/ [2] http://www.compusa.com/ [3] http://www.computercity.com/ [4] http://www.bestbuy.com/ [5] http://www.officedepot.com/ [6] http://www.officemax.com/ [7] http://www.staples.com/ [8] http://www.directbuy.com/ [9] http://www.geeks.com/ [10] http://www.newegg.com/ [11] http://www.tigerdirect.com/ [12] http://www.zipzoomfly.com/ [13] http://www.apple.com/mac/ [14] http://www.dell.com/ [15] http://www.gateway.com/ [16] http://hp.com/ [17] http://www.autodesk.com/ [18] http://www.adobe.com/ [19] http://www.microsoft.com/ [20] http://www.openoffice.org/ http://angbiondo.com/?p=367 By: Ang Biondo   A potentially volatile virus is ready to strike tomorrow on April 1st.  It is the third variant of the conficker C. virus which has been set by its programmers with a hard date (a specific date) like  its predecessors.  This virus takes advantage of a hole in the Windows security system.  Microsoft®, thinks it is serious enough to offer a $250,000 dollar reward.   A good test to see if your computer is infected is to see if you can log onto: http://www.microsoft.com [1] , http://www.symantec.com [2] , or http://www.mcafee.com [3] , if you can't - there is a good chance your computer is infected.    Conficker C. is back in its third variation.  Recently detected by Symantec in its third variant form and  is also known as W32.Downadup.C.  As I understand it previous versions were designed to disable the security system of the computer and propogate itself, then lay back and wait for the hard programmed date to activate and do its dirty work.  This third variant “C” apparently acts more like a Trojan than a worm and is designed to be more aggressive and set to go off on April, 1st , 2009.   ”Downadup, also called "Conficker," has infected an estimated 6% of PCs worldwide [4] . The worm spreads by exploiting a four-month-old vulnerability in Windows, by brute-force password attacks [5] and by hitchhiking on USB devices like flash drives.” Read the full article at: networkworld.com/news [6].   This virus is well written by persons extremely well versed in network programming. Like its predecessors it is stealth and programmed with a hard date, in this case, April 1st.  Surprisingly Microsoft is collaborating with the industry to catch the propagators of this virus by offering a $250,00.00 reward for the arrest and conviction of the originators.  You can read more about this on the Microsoft Site or by clicking on  Conficker. C REWARD [7].   You can also listen to a "PODCAST" [8] of Keith Shaw from NetworkWorld.com talking with Mike Paquette from Top Layer Security about ways that IT and security pros can prepare their systems for the next Conficker variant or worm that comes looking to wreak havoc on their systems. (16:30)   Owners of computers infected with the Conficker. C are probably not aware of its presence.  The anti-virus anti-malware industry as well as Microsoft ® are well aware of the situation and are ferverantly working for a solution prior to “D” day (April 1st).  I strongly suggest you visit the website of the manufacture of your anti-virus product to read their notes on this potentially disastrous worm.     Precautionary measures you should definitely take to start with are: ·        Download and run the Microsoft ® Malicious Software® removal tool [9].  Microsoft® updates this tool every first Tuesday of the month.  It is designed to use as a supplement to use with  your anti-virus software.  The tool runs in the background and prepares a report when done. ·        Make sure you have the latest virus definitions update for your anti-virus software.  I am running “Vipre” which updates automatically and I have seen it update several times in a day. ·        If you listened to the Podcast (above), you would hav e heard Mike Paquette from Top Layer Security suggest you turn-off the “autorun” feature in Windows®.       Copyright © PoliticalFinePrint.com™ ( 2009)     All contents are the sole property of PoliticalFinePrint.com. PoliticalFinePrint.com reserves the right to change, modify or delete articles without notice. The material contained within the pages of PoliticalFinePrint.com™, is free to its readers and may be reprinted without pre-authorization from PoliticalFinePriont.com™, as long as it is not modified or changed in any way, and this notice and copyright© is included. PolicalFinePrint.com™ is the trademark of PoliticalFinePrint.com™ and canno [1] http://www.microsoft.com [2] http://www.symantec.com [3] http://www.mcafee.com [4] http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126482 [5] http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126349 [6] http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/012309-researchers-wait-for-downadup-worms.html [7] http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/feb09/02-12ConfickerPR.mspx [8] http://www.networkworld.com/podcasts/panorama/2009/031109pan-paquette-conficker.html [9] http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en http://angbiondo.com/?p=353 By: Ang Biondo     Unfortunately Microsoft™ did not incorporate a choice or way to change the ‘Office © 2007 applications to the classic look.  I do include a solution however, at the end of this article.<br/>Microsoft™ will be dropping support for its ‘Office ® 2003 © products soon and, it has a lot of people concerned.  The Microsoft™ “Lifecycle support policy is to support a product for 10 years, or 5 after its replacement makes its debut.  You can read the full text by clicking on: Microsoft TM Lifecycle Support Policy FAQ's [1] .    Microsoft™ made many changes and improvements to ‘Office 2007 ® incorporating over 1500 commands which necessitated the need to restructure the classic menu ribbon we were all so familiar with.  Many ‘Office © users are concerned the dramatic change to the new ribbon menu of the ‘Office © 2007 applications will impair their efficiency at the office.   The change in the menu structure and overall appearance is alien to them.  Those that have used ‘Office since its inception are used to transparent upgrades and the classic look.  From the first version of Microsoft™ Office© all subsequent versions had that familiar look and classic menu.  Improvements and new features were incorporated into it.  Microsoft™ Office 2007© changed that.  It didn’t look anything like its predecessors.   Basically Microsoft™ literally ran out of room on the classic ribbon menu for additional features and was forced to create a  new look to accommodate new features for its newest version of Microsoft™ Office.  You can see the story of the evolution of the new ribbon menu on Jensen Harris’s blog at: The Story of the Ribbon [2].  Jensen Harris is the Microsoft™ Production manager responsible for the new look. You can download the video and pick up some good pointers on ‘Office ® at the same time.   It seems most people are concerned with the learning curve when upgrading to ‘Office ® 2007.  It seems ‘Office © users who find it most difficult to make the transition to the new format are those who only use ‘Word©, or Excel©.  Most power users who use all or most of the applications in the ‘Office suite usually make the transition in a relatively short period of time.  But that is not to say I haven’t heard complaints from them as well. I admit the learning curve is somewhat difficult for many.    With the end of support looming in the not too distant future, many companies are upgrading their networks to ‘Office © 2007 and the employee’s who are so accustomed to the friendly classic look of past versions of ‘Office © will be forced into the apparently hostile environment of ‘Office © 2007.   If it’s any consolation, I have been using Microsoft™ Office ® 2007 Professional since it was first introduced.  I consider myself an average user but, admit I have multiple computers and installed it on only one of the systems while I still ran ‘Office © 2003 on my main computer.  Being, I wasn’t thrown into it and had time to acclimate to it, I wasn’t intimidated by it and had time to familiarize myself with it.  I guess being retired helped a little too.   For those who don’t have the luxury of time to adjust to the new environment of ‘Office © 2007, there is hope.  Someone out there has heard your cries for help.  They have developed a plug-in to change the menu structure and appearance of ‘Office ® 2007 to look and feel like ‘Office ® 2003.  The company, Addintools Technology LTD sells the plug-in/s for $29.95 U.S. for all modules or $15.95 U.S. for the individual modules.  You can purchase their products directly from them at:  http://www.addintools.com/ [3].  If you are interested, you can view the screen shots of what ‘Office © 2007’s applications look like with the “addintools” installed by clicking here. [4]   From what I see the screenshots are fairly close to the ’03 ‘Office © applications, except for ‘Access © which looks more like ‘Excel © to me.  Other than that I think they are as close to the ’03 ‘Office © products as you can get.  The extra features of ‘Office © 2007 make it impossible to be exact.  The downside, is having to shell out $30.  That seems a little high for a plug-in.  Especially since the new look is probably going to become the new classic look for the ‘Office menu.   Next week:  Some pointers and short-cuts for Microsoft™ Office Professional ®     Copyright © angbiondo.com (Feb, 2009)   All articles posted on http://www.angbiondo.com [5] are the property of authors and publishers of angbiondo.com.  All rights and privileges are reserved   Articles are free to our readers for private use and sharing.  Readers may freely reproduce and share any article posted on angbiondo.com so long as this notice is included along with the copyright© notice.  Articles and post may not be altered in any way, Use for personal gain or the sale of reproduced articles is expressly forbidden. Angbiondo.com™, is the trademark of angbiondo.com and cannot be copied, altered, or used without the express written permission of angbiondo.com   [1] http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy [2] http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2008/03/12/the-story-of-the-ribbon.aspx [3] http://www.addintools.com/ [4] http://www.addintools.com/english/menuoffice/screen_shots.htm [5] http://www.angbiondo.com/ http://angbiondo.com/?p=316 By: Ang Biondo     About a month or so ago we talked about Windows 7® Beta 1 making its debut earlier this month.  I downloaded my copy and decided to install it in my Gateway MX6425 notebook.  My Gateway is 4 yrs old and equipped with an AMD Turion™ 64 mobile CPU (single core), 1 GB DDR 333 RAM and, a WD 120 GB Hard drive and a Sony DVD/CD writer.  By Vista® standards greatly under qualified.  I originally ran the Vista® Ultimate Beta on this machine and it bogged down terribly.  I upped the memory to 2 GB and had little more success.  I finally removed Vista® and restored the system to its original state with XP home.   Let’s stop here to answer a few questions I received in the past few weeks.:   Q:  What do I need to know about running a beta product? A:  Beta products are pre-releases of products not yet released for sale to the public.  This means that you need to understand you are working by the rules of “Murphy’s Law” – I something can    go wrong it will.    Q:  Are beta products safe for a novice to use?  A:  Beta products are not fully supported by the manufacturer and the user is often on his/her own when a problem occurs.  Beta users depend on user groups and forums for support, and the manufacture expects users, user groups, and forums, to report the problems encountered in hopes that the beta program will shake out all the bugs before going retail.  To answer the question – it’s not recommended.    Q:  Is it safe to run a beta program on my only computer? A:  NO! If you only have one computer, “Murphy’s Law” becomes a commandment.  Many beta users have a computer that is used only for beta products.  In many cases, if you only have one computer and that computer can be booted from an external drive, you might be able to install the beta on the external drive.  If your only computer is a desktop, and it gives you the choice to set your boot drive in the BIOS, you can install a second drive (slave) and set to boot from that drive before installing the beta product, especially if the beta product is an operating system like “Windows 7®.    I hope I have answered the questions sufficiently.  Beta products are neat to work with as long as they are installed on a computer you don’t need to depend on.    Now, with the Windows 7® Beta in my hands and the curiosity of a cat, I decided to install it on (you guessed it), my trusty old Gateway.  But I wanted to compare it to the previous Vista® installation so I removed one of memory modules and proceeded with the installation.    The installation gave me a choice of upgrading so I could keep all my settings or a new install.  If you give me a choice of upgrade or clean install, I’ll pick clean install almost every time.  I say almost because if I am installing a retail version over an existing version and want to keep my current settings and installed software compatible with the new installation, then it is best to upgrade rather than clean install.  Since I had restored XP Home®, and had nothing on the drive that I needed to keep, I had to do a clean install, since the upgrade is only valid if you are upgrading from Vista®.     The installation was flawless, and to my surprise performed as well if not better than XP Home®, at this point. Everything worked but the sound, which was expected.  Gateway used AMD processors in these machines and Vista® was designed to use with Intel processors.  At least this is what I was informed by a Microsoft® technician in the process of debugging the Vista® installation.  I also had to upgrade the computers BIOS in order to accommodate Vista®.  This is the reason for no sound, since the sound card is integrated into the motherboard and impacted by the BIOS, I had to obtain drivers that were compatible with the new BIOS.    Windows 7® Ultimate, like Vista® Ultimate, has many bells and whistles.  The more bells and whistles you choose to use the more resources are used.  For example, the Vista® Ultimate 32 bit version originally only recognized 3.25 GB of RAM before SP1.  If you wanted to take advantage of all the bells and whistles integrated into the product you would have to have 8 GB of RAM and the 64 bit version installed per Microsoft’s® recommendations.  However the average off the shelf computer or eMachine, is usually only capable of recognizing a mere 2 GB of RAM.  Needless to say the Guru’s who designed Vista® literally came out with a horse (a Clydesdale at that), that they expected you to house in a dog house designed for a Mexican Chiwawa. In other words the full blown high end product was not designed for the average home user.     Windows 7®, so far appears to have corrected some of the problems encountered with Vista®.  It may even have corrected most of them, but it is too early to tell.  As yet, I have seen no serious negative reports, but the beta for public release has only been out a few weeks.  Those who were testing the earlier beta versions are for the most part experienced seasoned developers who usually know their way around a fledgling system filled with bugs.  But, even the most experienced developer doesn’t usually get to use 100% of the operating system, thus the need for beta users.    To better understand this, one needs to know how such a complex program as a computer operating system is born.  In years past this was accomplished with the use of individual teams.  Basically the simple explanation is each team develops a module, or piece of the program.  The modules (pieces of the program) are then assembled into one program.  The problems or bugs are usually not with the individual modules, or mini programs that make up the main program, but how the module is integrated into the main program.    The teams who wrote the individual modules, would test them thoroughly before submitting them for integration into the main body of the program, being constructed.  The team who was responsible for tying the ends together had the tough job of integrating each module into the main system and making it as transparent as possible to the end user. When this involves thousands of calls or sub-calls to the many mini programs or modules that had to be compiled into a single operating system it became a living nightmare. I always had this vision in my head of the team members with this responsibility, tripping over the bottles of anti-acid as they scurried from computer to computer.     Today such complex programs and operating systems are developed with programs such as "Microsoft® Team Suite©", or possibly something even more advanced.  This makes projects like developing new sophisticated complex software applications much easier by allowing developers to intigrate the modules as they go along.  However, problems still persist and the final product usually manages to contain a bug or two to be shaken out.   So far my experiences with Microsoft’s new pride and joy have been a positive one.  I have installed several gadgets in the sidebar, Microsoft Office Professional 2007®, Adobe PhotoShop along with several of my favorite utilities and software applications, all without problems.     That’s not to say there are no problems, I did have a problem initially.  Naturally the first applications I installed was my Vipre anti-virus/spyware applications and the Sunbelt personal firewall.  The Vipre virus protection went without a hitch, however I encountered a problem installing the firewall.  The computer needed to reboot after installation in order for the firewall to work.  It was at this point that I encountered a minor glitch.  On reboot the computer stalled in a loop between the splash screen and the desktop screen.  After waiting several minutes and several resets I was forced to reinstall the Windows 7® beta.     I did attempt a repair with the Windows 7® repair feature, to no avail while the firewall software was installed.  My attempts to remove the firewall in safe mode also proved futile.  I contemplated using “regedit” to remove the some 100+ calls for “Sunbelt” in the registry, but chose to reinstall the Windows 7® beta instead.  Besides, if I had created a restore point prior to the installation, the Windows 7® repair feature would have had a reference point to repair from.    The windows firewall is activated at startup and must be turned off prior to installing a third party firewall.  In some cases, when you turn off the Windows firewall, it also closes port 80, which must be open prior to installing a third party firewall.  Port 80 is normally open, and I will have to ask Microsoft™ and Sunbelt™ techie’s for the reason or solution for this.       One of the quirks I have encountered is that when a problem does occur, Windows 7® has a “quick fix” feature that detects when a problem occurs and attempts of fix it.  However, in the repair process it reverts back to the last known good boot settings, losing any updates or programs you may have installed since that last good boot.  This is not necessarily a bad feature, but it does happen.  The solution is a simple one, all you need do is create a restore point after installing a new application or making a change to your system.  This is a practice one should make a habit of anyway.    I have not installed the other Gigabyte of DDR as yet and would like to see how much I can load the computer before encountering any major problems.  I’m tempted to install Windows 7® on my desktop, but will probably wait until the final or retail version hits the shelves.    My desktop is a home built system running Vista® Ultimate (32 bit version), equipped with an Intel Core 2 quad CPU, 4 GB DDR2 800 MHz, 1.5 Terabytes HDD storage and all the other normal peripherals. I am well satisfied with the performance of this machine even though I am running the 32 bit version of Vista.  The retail version comes with both the 32 and 64 bit DVD’s, but if you want to run software originally written for the old 16 bit operating systems i.e. Windows 98®, your stuck with using the 32 bit version of Vista®.   Windows 7® will undoubtedly be sold with similar platforms as Vista® and the Ultimate version will probably include both the 32 and 64 bit versions.  As it stands, I believe you can still download either beta version from Microsoft’s web site, but I don’t know how long either will be available.  I’m under the impression that Microsoft plans on coming out with the retail version of Windows 7® by August, so the beta versions probably won’t be made available too much longer.   Check it out Windows 7® : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ [1]     Copyright© Februray, 2009   All articles posted on http://www.angbiondo.com [2] are the property of authors and publishers of angbiondo.com.  All rights and privileges are reserved   Articles are free to our readers for private use and sharing.  Readers may freely reproduce and share any article posted on angbiondo.com so long as this notice is included along with the copyright© notice.  Articles and post may not be altered in any way, Use personal gain or the sale of reproduced articles is expressly forbidden. Angbiondo.com™, is the trademark of angbiondo.com and cannot be copied, altered, or used without the express written permission of angbiondo.com         [1] http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ [2] http://www.angbiondo.com/ http://angbiondo.com/?p=290 By: Ang Biondo   Microsoft extends Windows XP™ deadline for system builders to offer and install XP on new builds to May, 30th 2009.  As of Jan 31, 2009 or there about, Microsoft™ had planned to stop distribution of its XP’ products.  At that point computer manufactures were to install Vista™ in all new builds as their inventory of XP runs out.  I am sure a number of larger manufactures will undoubtedly order sufficient supplies to hold them over until the long awaited Windows 7®™ is released, supposedly later on this year.   Rumor has it that the beta 1 version of Windows 7®™ is scheduled to be released to the public in the 2nd or 3rd week of January.  Those daring enough will be able to acquire a copy directly through Microsoft™ on DVD for a small fee, or possibly download it for free from the Microsoft™ site.  This is the final version before release and per Microsoft™ policy, if you install it, it will remain active until August 1st 2009 – at which time it will cease to work.  With that in mind I would presume Windows 7 will be available by then. I guess we will have to wait and see.     Windows 7® is designed to be faster, more reliable, and more compatible, with more devices and applications than ever before.  For those of you interested in seeing what Windows 7® will have to offer, click on this Windows 7 [1] ® link to see a preview video.  I think you will be impressed.   Since you really need to dedicate a computer to an early version beta product, and I didn’t have a computer setup to dedicate, I chose not to run the early beta version of ‘7, I do intend to run the final copy though, as I can load it on a dedicated drive and boot from that drive.  Colleagues who have been running the early beta versions tell me it is much like Vista ®™ in many ways with some unique features.    My experience when I first ran the Vista Ultimate®™ beta was quite a trip.  I have to admit I was not setup for it.  I ran the compatibility test on the computer I intended to install it on and it passed with flying colors.  However, the compatibility test, does just that – checks for basic driver and software compatibility.  It did not run benchmark tests to check for performance.  It did not tell me that I needed a minimum of 4 to 8 GB of ram to access all features of Vista Ultimate®™.  The 2 GB of ram my machine was capable of handling proved totally inadequate for the task at hand.  It also approved my 2 GB 64 bit processor which bogged down from Vista’s demands.  When I ran the 64 bit version of ‘Ultimate and encountered problems with it, Microsoft®™ support informed me that the 64 bit version was designed around the Intel®™ processors and there were some issues with AMD®™ processors.  I reformatted the drive and installed the 32 bit version which was fully compatible but slow.   After purchasing and running Vista®™ Ultimate for several months I (along with hundreds of thousands of others) reverted to ‘XP Pro, and stuck with it.  I’ve since upgraded that computer and have toyed with the idea of reinstalling Vista Ultimate, but have decided to wait for ‘7’s release.  I hope Microsoft keeps in mind the fact that a lot of people paid a lot of money to upgrade to a dog they were forced to put out of its suffering, when the price the upgrade cost to Windows 7®™.  I think there are a lot of unhappy people who still have the $150 to $499 they shelled out for Vista®™.   Microsoft has setup a program with the computer builders to allow them to pay for the XP installations after they sell the computer, or as late as May 30th.  What that means is any builder regardless of size, should be able to order sufficient supplies by Jan, 30th of ’09 to get them through until Windows 7 [1] ® makes its debut later this year, or even possible by this summer.  However, if you are planning to buy from a local builder or individual who is custom building out of a small shop, I would consider making the purchase sooner.  If your builder is not in a position to commit to a large supply of copies of XP®, to install on what he/she builds until Windows 7 [1] ® debuts, you might have to settle for Vista®.   For those of you purchasing new computers, I would ask if the Windows 7 [1] ® upgrade is included with the purchase of your new machine.  If not and you intend to upgrade to Windows 7®, from what have seen, and based on Vista Ultimate® requirements, I would highly recommend your new computer is equipped with or can be upgraded with:   ü  2.5 GB (or higher) Dual or Quad core processor ü  8 GB DDR2 RAM ü  1 Terabyte Hard Drive ü  3D Video Card with a minimum of 512 megabytes of onboard ram I base this on the fact that some of the new features far exceed the capabilities of Vista® and the user touch screen user interface of Windows 7 [1] ®.  I would also recommend the use of screen protectors for that LCD monitor as well.  You can expect a million fingerprints on the screen as soon as you boot it up.  Those fingers hitting the icons on the screen have fingernails and if you don’t protect the Mylar or whatever plastic is used to make them, you can expect a lot of scratches in very short order.   With this announcement from Microsoft™, and the failure of their $300 million dollar ad campaign, it would seem more than likely that Vista® is headed for an early retirement.  The campaign failed in its attempts to catch the eye of corporations, small businesses and home users, a necessity for a successful launch of the product, which it failed to accomplish right from the start.   Microsoft cannot afford two failures in a row.  They are fully aware of the competition, Unix, and its smaller versions like Linux and the up and coming SUN Solaris operating systems.  Windows 7® will undoubtedly revive the Windows era if it turns out to be everything it claims to be.   Unix® is widely used in industry, the government, and WEB hosting mainframes; it has proven itself to be extremely reliable and stable.  It is not however user friendly and utilizes a cryptic command system that is not conducive for use by grandma trying to send an e-mail.  However many of my colleagues strongly feel that SUN™ computer systems “Solaris 10”® operating system (offered free to download) might easily replace Windows™, and/or Unix® in the near future.  I must admit, other than the “hear-say”, I can’t comment on “Solaris” as I have just recently downloaded it and begun research on it.  You can check it out yourself at Solaris 10 [6] .     Copyright© January 2009   All articles posted on http://www.angbiondo.com [7] are the property of authors and publishers of angbiondo.com.  All rights and privileges are reserved   Articles are free to our readers for private use and sharing.  Readers may freely reproduce and share any article posted on angbiondo.com so long as this notice is included along with the copyright© notice.  Articles and post may not be altered in any way, Use personal gain or the sale of reproduced articles is expressly forbidden. Angbiondo.com™, is the trademark of angbiondo.com and cannot be copied, altered, or used without the express written permission of angbiondo.com           [1] http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ [2] http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ [3] http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ [4] http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ [5] http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ [6] http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/get.jsp?cid=251117 [7] http://www.angbiondo.com/ http://angbiondo.com/?p=284